I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky

Synopsis
In Los Angeles, seven young Americans from varied origins (Black American, Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic) see their destinies upturned during the earthquake in 1994. This catastrophe sets off a series of situations which little by little draw a fresco of contemporary society and its contradictions.

A dark, highly charged work 
As the heir to the American minimalist school of Terry Riley, Philip Glass or Steve Reich, or else of Ravel or Debussy, John Adams marked a turning point in his career with this opera. For, here, the composer forged links with the masters who had revolutionised the musical comedy : George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. In an attempt, like them, to capture the popular language of his times, he naturally turned towards rock and pop, in particular in his instrumentation, so as to mingle these genres with the classical. The staging has been entrusted to a faithful friend of the Opéra de Lyon, Macha Makéieff (Paradise-Moscow, The Merry Widow, Le Bœuf sur le toit, Les Mamelles de Tirésias), who became renowned thanks to the troop “Les Deschiens”. It is a fantastical piece whose dark, highly-charged character is not without recalling the spirit of Brecht in The Threepenny Opera.